A medium-sized market town in the medieval period, Birmingham grew to international prominence in the 18th century at the heart of the Midlands Enlightenment and subsequent Industrial Revolution, which saw the town at the forefront of worldwide advances in science, technology, and economic development, producing a series of innovations that laid many of the foundations of modern industrial society.[8] By 1791 it was being hailed as "the first manufacturing town in the world".[9] Birmingham's distinctive economic profile, with thousands of small workshops practising a wide variety of specialised and highly skilled trades, encouraged exceptional levels of creativity and innovation and provided a diverse and resilient economic base for industrial prosperity that was to last into the final quarter of the 20th century. Perhaps the most important invention in British history, the industrial steam engine, was invented in Birmingham.[10] Its resulting high level of social mobility also fostered a culture of broad-based political radicalism, that under leaders from Thomas Attwood to Joseph Chamberlain was to give it a political influence unparalleled in Britain outside London, and a pivotal role in the development of British democracy.[11] From the summer of 1940 to the spring of 1943, Birmingham was bombed heavily by the German Luftwaffe in what is known as the Birmingham Blitz. The damage done to the city's infrastructure, in addition to a deliberate policy of demolition and new building by planners, led to extensive demolition and redevelopment in subsequent decades.

Birmingham's sporting heritage can be felt worldwide, with the concept of the Football League and lawn tennis both originating from the city. Its most successful football club Aston Villa has won seven league titles and one European Cup with the other professional club being Birmingham City.

People from Birmingham are called Brummies, a term derived from the city's nickname of Brum. This originates from the city's dialect name, Brummagem,[18] which may in turn have been derived from one of the city's earlier names, Bromwicham.[19] There is a distinctive Brummieaccent and dialect.

Birmingham's early history is that of a remote and marginal area. The main centres of population, power and wealth in the pre-industrial English Midlands lay in the fertile and accessible river valleys of the Trent, the Severn and the Avon. The area of modern Birmingham lay in between, on the upland Birmingham Plateau and within the densely wooded and sparsely populated Forest of Arden.[20]

There is evidence of early human activity in the Birmingham area dating back 10,000 years,[21] with stone age artefacts suggesting seasonal settlements, overnight hunting parties and woodland activities such as tree felling.[22] The many burnt mounds that can still be seen around the city indicate that modern humans first intensively settled and cultivated the area during the bronze age, when a substantial but short-lived influx of population occurred between 1700 BC and 1000 BC, possibly caused by conflict or immigration in the surrounding area.[23] During the 1st-century Roman conquest of Britain, the forested country of the Birmingham Plateau formed a barrier to the advancing Roman legions,[24] who built the large Metchley Fort in the area of modern-day Edgbaston in AD 48,[25] and made it the focus of a network of Roman roads.[26]

Birmingham as a settlement dates from the Anglo-Saxon era. The city's name comes from the Old EnglishBeormingahām, meaning the home or settlement of the Beormingas – indicating that Birmingham was established in the 6th or early 7th century as the primary settlement of an Anglian tribal grouping and regio of that name.[27] Despite this early importance, by the time of the Domesday Book of 1086 the manor of Birmingham was one of the poorest and least populated in Warwickshire, valued at only 20 shillings,[28] with the area of the modern city divided between the counties of Warwickshire, Staffordshire and Worcestershire.[29]

The development of Birmingham into a significant urban and commercial centre began in 1166, when the Lord of the Manor Peter de Bermingham obtained a charter to hold a market at his castle, and followed this with the creation of a planned market town and seigneurial borough within his demesne or manorial estate, around the site that became the Bull Ring.[30] This established Birmingham as the primary commercial centre for the Birmingham Plateau at a time when the area's economy was expanding rapidly, with population growth nationally leading to the clearance, cultivation and settlement of previously marginal land.[31] Within a century of the charter Birmingham had grown into a prosperous urban centre of merchants and craftsmen.[32] By 1327 it was the third-largest town in Warwickshire,[33] a position it would retain for the next 200 years.[34]

The principal governing institutions of medieval Birmingham – including the Guild of the Holy Cross and the lordship of the de Birmingham family – collapsed between 1536 and 1547,[35] leaving the town with an unusually high degree of social and economic freedom and initiating a period of transition and growth.[36] By 1700 Birmingham's population had increased fifteenfold and the town was the fifth-largest in England and Wales.[37]

The importance of the manufacture of iron goods to Birmingham's economy was recognised as early as 1538, and grew rapidly as the century progressed.[38] Equally significant was the town's emerging role as a centre for the iron merchants who organised finance, supplied raw materials and traded and marketed the industry's products.[39] By the 1600s Birmingham formed the commercial hub of a network of forges and furnaces stretching from South Wales to Cheshire[40] and its merchants were selling finished manufactured goods as far afield as the West Indies.[41] These trading links gave Birmingham's metalworkers access to much wider markets, allowing them to diversify away from lower-skilled trades producing basic goods for local sale, towards a broader range of specialist, higher-skilled and more lucrative activities.[42]

Birmingham's explosive industrial expansion started earlier than that of the textile-manufacturing towns of the North of England,[54] and was driven by different factors. Instead of the economies of scale of a low-paid, unskilled workforce producing a single bulk commodity such as cotton or wool in large, mechanised units of production, Birmingham's industrial development was built on the adaptability and creativity of a highly paid workforce with a strong division of labour, practising a broad variety of skilled specialist trades and producing a constantly diversifying range of products, in a highly entrepreneurial economy of small, often self-owned workshops.[55] This led to exceptional levels of inventiveness: between 1760 and 1850 – the core years of the Industrial Revolution – Birmingham residents registered over three times as many patents as those of any other British town or city.[56]

Most significant, however, was the development in 1776 of the industrial steam engine by James Watt and Matthew Boulton.[69] Freeing for the first time the manufacturing capacity of human society from the limited availability of hand, water and animal power, this was arguably the pivotal moment of the entire industrial revolution and a key factor in the worldwide increases in productivity that would follow over the following century.[70]

Birmingham rose to national political prominence in the campaign for political reform in the early 19th century, with Thomas Attwood and the Birmingham Political Union bringing the country to the brink of civil war during the Days of May that preceded the passing of the Great Reform Act in 1832.[71] The Union's meetings on Newhall Hill in 1831 and 1832 were the largest political assemblies Britain had ever seen.[72]Lord Durham, who drafted the Act, wrote that "the country owed Reform to Birmingham, and its salvation from revolution".[73] This reputation for having "shaken the fabric of privilege to its base" in 1832 led John Bright to make Birmingham the platform for his successful campaign for the Second Reform Act of 1867, which extended voting rights to the urban working class.[74]

By the 1820s, an extensive canal system had been constructed, giving greater access to natural resources and fuel for industries. During the Victorian era, the population of Birmingham grew rapidly to well over half a million[78] and Birmingham became the second largest population centre in England. Birmingham was granted city status in 1889 by Queen Victoria.[79]Joseph Chamberlain, mayor of Birmingham and later an MP, and his son Neville Chamberlain, who was Lord Mayor of Birmingham and later the British Prime Minister, are two of the most well-known political figures who have lived in Birmingham. The city established its own university in 1900.[80]

The city was extensively redeveloped during the 1950s and 1960s.[85] This included the construction of large tower block estates, such as Castle Vale. The Bull Ring was reconstructed and New Street station was redeveloped. In the decades following World War II, the ethnic makeup of Birmingham changed significantly, as it received waves of immigration from the Commonwealth of Nations and beyond.[86] The city's population peaked in 1951 at 1,113,000 residents.[78]

Birmingham remained by far Britain's most prosperous provincial city as late as the 1970s,[87] with household incomes exceeding even those of London and the South East,[88] but its economic diversity and capacity for regeneration declined in the decades that followed World War II as Central Government sought to restrict the city's growth and disperse industry and population to the stagnating areas of Scotland, Wales and Northern England.[89] These measures hindered "the natural self-regeneration of businesses in Birmingham, leaving it top-heavy with the old and infirm",[90] and the city became increasingly dependent on the motor industry. The recession of the early 1980s saw Birmingham's economy collapse, with unprecedented levels of unemployment and outbreaks of social unrest in inner-city districts.[91]

A top-level government body, the West Midlands Combined Authority, will be formed in April 2016. The WMCA will gain devolved powers in transport, development planning, and economic growth. The authority will be governed by a directly-elected Mayor, similar to the Mayor of London.

Much of the area now occupied by the city was originally a northern reach of the ancient Forest of Arden, whose former presence can still be felt in the city's dense oak tree-cover and in the large number of districts such as Moseley, Saltley, Yardley, Stirchley and Hockley with names ending in "-ley": the Old English-lēah meaning "woodland clearing".[98]

Geologically, Birmingham is dominated by the Birmingham Fault which runs diagonally through the city from the Lickey Hills in the south west, passing through Edgbaston and the Bull Ring, to Erdington and Sutton Coldfield in the north east.[99] To the south and east of the fault the ground is largely softer Mercia Mudstone, interspersed with beds of Bunter pebbles and crossed by the valleys of the Rivers Tame, Rea and Cole and their tributaries.[100] To the north and west of the fault, between 150 and 600 feet (45–180 m) higher than the surrounding area and underlying much of the city centre, lies a long ridge of harder KeuperSandstone.[101][102] The bedrock underlying Birmingham was mostly laid down during the Permian and Triassic periods.[99]

Birmingham has a temperatemaritime climate, like much of the British Isles, with average maximum temperatures in summer (July) being around 21.3 °C (70.3 °F); and in winter (January) around 6.7 °C (44.1 °F).[103] Between 1971 and 2000 the warmest day of the year on average was 28.8 °C (83.8 °F)[104] and the coldest night typically fell to −9.0 °C (15.8 °F).[105] Some 11.2 days each year rose to a temperature of 25.1 °C (77.2 °F) or above[106] and 51.6 nights reported an air frost.[107] The highest recorded temperature, set during August 1990, was 34.9 °C (94.8 °F).[108]

Like most other large cities, Birmingham has a considerable urban heat island effect.[109] During the coldest night recorded, 14 January 1982, the temperature fell to −20.8 °C (−5.4 °F) at Birmingham Airport on the city's eastern edge, but just −12.9 °C (8.8 °F) at Edgbaston, near the city centre.[110]

Birmingham is a snowy city relative to other large UK conurbations, due to its inland location and comparatively high elevation.[110] Between 1961 and 1990 Birmingham Airport averaged 13.0 days of snow lying annually,[111] compared to 5.33 at London Heathrow.[112] Snow showers often pass through the city via the Cheshire gap on north westerly airstreams, but can also come off the North Sea from north easterly airstreams.[110]

Extreme weather is rare but the city has been known to experience tornados – the most recent being in July 2005 in the south of the city, damaging homes and businesses in the area.[113]

The 2012 mid-year estimate for the population of Birmingham was 1,085,400. This was an increase of 11,200, or 1.0%, since the same time in 2011. Since 2001, the population has grown by 99,500, or 10.1%. Birmingham is the largest local Authority area and city outside London. The population density is 10,391 inhabitants per square mile (4,102/km²) compared to the 976.9 inhabitants per square mile (377.2/km²) for England. Based on the 2011 census, Birmingham's population is projected to reach 1,160,100 by 2021, an increase of 8.0%. This compares with an estimated rate of 9.1% for the previous decade.[123]

238,313 Birmingham residents were born overseas, of these, 44% (103,682) have been resident in the UK for less than 10 years. Countries new to the twenty most reported countries of birth for Birmingham residents since 2001 include, Iran, Zimbabwe, Philippines and Nigeria. Established migrants outnumbered newer migrants in all wards except for, Edgbaston, Ladywood, Nechells and Selly Oak.

In Birmingham 60.4% of the population was aged between 16 and 74, compared to 66.7% in England as a whole.[126] There are generally more females than males in each single year of age, except for the youngest ages (0-18) and late 30's and late 50's. Females represented 51.6% of the population whilst men represented 48.4%. The differences are most marked in the oldest age group reflecting greater female longevity, where more women were 70 or over.[127] The bulge around the early 20's is due largely to students coming to the city's Universities. Children around age 10 are a relatively small group, reflecting the decline in birth rates around the turn of the century. There is a large group of children under the age of five which reflecting high numbers of births in recent years. Births are up 20% since 2001, increasing from 14,427 to 17,423 in 2011.

In 2011 of all households in Birmingham, 0.12% were same-sex civil partnership households, compared to the English national average of 0.16%.[128]

25.9% of all households owned their accommodation outright, another 29.3% owned their accommodation with a mortgage or loan. These figures were below the national average.[129]

45.5% of people said they were in very good health which was below the national average. Another 33.9% said they were in good health, which was also below the national average. 9.1% of people said their day-to-day activities were limited a lot by their health which was higher than the national average.[129]

Christianity is the largest religion within Birmingham, with 46.1% of residents identifying as Christians in the 2011 Census.[132] The city's religious profile is highly diverse, however: outside London, Birmingham has the United Kingdom's largest Muslim, Sikh and Buddhist communities; its second largest Hindu community; and its seventh largest Jewish community.[132] Between the 2001 and 2011 censuses, the proportion of Christians in Birmingham decreased from 59.1% to 46.1%, while the proportion of Muslims increased from 14.3% to 21.8% and the proportion of people with no religious affiliation increased from 12.4% to 19.3%. All other religions remained proportionately similar.[133]

Manufacturing accounted for 8% of employment within Birmingham in 2012, a figure beneath the average for the UK as a whole.[12] Major industrial plants within the city include Jaguar Land Rover in Castle Bromwich and Cadbury in Bournville, with large local producers also supporting a supply chain of precision-based small manufacturers and craft industries.[141] More traditional industries also remain: 40% of the jewellery made in the UK is still produced by the 300 independent manufacturers of the city's Jewellery Quarter,[142] continuing a trade first recorded in Birmingham in 1308.[33]

Birmingham's GVA was £24.1bn (2013 est.,), and the economy grew relatively slowly between 2002 and 2012, where growth was 30% below the national average.[144] The value of manufacturing output in the city declined by 21% in real terms between 1997 and 2010, but the value of financial and insurance activities more than doubled.[145] With 16,281 start-ups registered during 2013 Birmingham has the highest level of entrepreneurial activity outside London,[146] while the number of registered businesses in the city grew by 1.6% during 2012.[147] Birmingham was behind only London and Edinburgh for private sector job creation between 2010 and 2013.[148]

Economic inequality within Birmingham is greater than in any other major English city, and is exceeded only by Glasgow in the United Kingdom.[149] Levels of unemployment are among the highest in the country, with 14.4% of the economically active population unemployed (Dec 2013).[150] In the inner-city wards of Aston and Washwood Heath, the figure is higher than 30%. Two-fifths of Birmingham's population live in areas classified as in the 10% most deprived parts of England, and overall Birmingham is the most deprived local authority in England in terms of income and employment deprivation.[151] The city's infant mortality rate is high, around 60% worse than the national average.[152] Meanwhile, just 49% of women have jobs, compared to 65% nationally,[152] and only 28% of the working-age population in Birmingham have degree level qualifications in contrast to the average of 34% across other Core Cities.[153]

According to the 2014 Mercer Quality of Living Survey, Birmingham was placed 51st in the world in, which was the second highest rating in the UK. This is an improvement on the city's 56th place in 2008.[154] The Big City Plan aims to move the city into the index's top 20 by 2026.[155] An area of the city has been designated an enterprise zone, with tax relief and simplified planning to lure investment.[156]

Literary figures associated with Birmingham include Samuel Johnson who stayed in Birmingham for a short period and was born in nearby Lichfield. Arthur Conan Doyle worked in the Aston area of Birmingham whilst poet Louis MacNeice lived in Birmingham for six years. It was whilst staying in Birmingham that American author Washington Irving produced several of his most famous literary works, such as Bracebridge Hall and The Humorists, A Medley which are based on Aston Hall.

Other festivals in the city include the Birmingham International Jazz Festival,"Party in the Park"[199] was originally a festival hosted by local and regional radio stations which died down in 2007 and has now been brought back to life as an unsigned festival for regional unsigned acts to showcase themselves in a one-day music festival for the whole family. Birmingham Comedy Festival (since 2001; 10 days in October), which has been headlined by such acts as Peter Kay, The Fast Show, Jimmy Carr, Lee Evans and Lenny Henry, and the Off The Cuff Festival established in 2009. The biennial International Dance Festival Birmingham started in 2008, organised by DanceXchange and involving indoor and outdoor venues across the city. Since 2001, Birmingham has also been host to the Frankfurt Christmas Market. Modelled on its German counterpart, it has grown to become the UK's largest outdoor Christmas market and is the largest German market outside of Germany and Austria,[200] attracting over 3.1 million visitors in 2010[201] and over 5 million visitors in 2011.[202]

Birmingham is home to many entainment and leisure venues. It is home to Europe's largest leisure and entertainment complex Star City as well as Europe's first out-of-city-centre entertainment and leisure complex Resorts World Birmingham owned by the Genting Group. The Mailbox which caters for more affluent clients is based within the city.

Birmingham is chiefly a product of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries; its growth began during the Industrial Revolution. Consequently, relatively few buildings survive from its earlier history and those that do are protected. There are 1,946 listed buildings in Birmingham and thirteen scheduled ancient monuments.[203] Birmingham City Council also operate a locally listing scheme for buildings that do not fully meet the criteria for statutorily listed status.

Highrise development has slowed since the 1970s and mainly in recent years because of enforcements imposed by the Civil Aviation Authority on the heights of buildings as they could affect aircraft from the Airport (e.g. Beetham Tower).[214]

Partly because of its central location, Birmingham is a major transport hub on the motorway, rail and canal networks.[215] The city is served by the M5, M6, M40, and M42 motorways, and probably the best known motorway junction in the UK: Spaghetti Junction.[216] The M6 passes through the city on the Bromford Viaduct, which at 3.5 miles (5.6 km) is the longest bridge in the United Kingdom.[217]

An extensive canal system remains from the Industrial Revolution, with the city having more miles of canal than Venice, although because Birmingham is much larger than Venice the canals are less of a prominent feature than they are in Venice.[232] Nowadays the canals are mainly used for leisure purposes, and canalside regeneration schemes such as Brindleyplace have turned the canals into tourist attractions.[citation needed]

In Birmingham libraries, leisure centres, parks, play areas, transport, street cleaning and waste collection face cuts among other services. Albert Bore, leader of Birmingham City Council called on the government to change radically how local services are funded and provided. It is claimed government cuts to local authorities have hit Birmingham disproportionately.[251]Child protection services within Birmingham were rated "inadequate" by OFSTED for four years running between 2009 and 2013, with 20 child deaths since 2007 being investigated.[252] In March 2014 the government announced that independent commissioner would be appointed to oversee improvements to children's services within the city.[253]

The former Birmingham Central Library, opened in 1972, was considered to be the largest municipal library in Europe.[254] Six of its collections were designated by the Arts Council England as being "pre-eminent collections of national and international importance", out of only eight collections to be so recognised in local authority libraries nationwide.[255] A new Library of Birmingham in Centenary Square, replacing Central Library, was opened on 3 September 2013. It was designed by the Dutch architects Mecanoo and has been described as "a kind of public forum ... a memorial, a shrine, to the book and to literature".[256] This library faces cuts, due to reduced funding from Central government.[257]

There are 41 local libraries in Birmingham, plus a regular mobile library service.[258] The library service has 4 million visitors annually.[259] Due to budget cuts, four of the branch libraries risk closure whilst services may be reduced elsewhere.[257]

Birmingham's development as a commercial town was originally based around its market for agricultural produce, established by royal charter in 1166. Despite the industrialisation of subsequent centuries this role has been retained and the Birmingham Wholesale Markets remain the largest combined wholesale food markets in the country,[290] selling meat, fish, fruit, vegetables and flowers and supplying fresh produce to restaurateurs and independent retailers from as far as 100 miles (161 km) away.[291]

There is also a thriving independent and artisan food sector in Birmingham, encompassing microbreweries like Two Towers,[297] and collective bakeries such as Loaf.[298] Recent years have seen these businesses increasingly showcased at farmers markets,[299] popular street food events[300] and food festivals including Birmingham Independent Food Fair.[301][302]

Central/ATV studios in Birmingham were the location for the recording of many programmes for ITV including Tiswas and Crossroads, until the complex was closed in 1997,[307] and Central moved to its current Gas Street studios. These were also the main hub for CITV, until that was moved to Manchester in 2004. Central's output from Birmingham now consists of only the West and East editions of the regional news programme Central Tonight.

^Grant, Maurice Harold (1958). "The Birmingham School of Landscape". A chronological history of the old English landscape painters, in oil, from the 16th century to the 19th century. 2. Leigh-on-Sea: F. Lewis. p. 167. OCLC499875203.

^"Routes". CrossCountry. Retrieved 26 May 2013. We cross more of the country than any other train company ... The CrossCountry network has Birmingham at its heart and stretches from Aberdeen to Penzance

Holt, Richard (1986). The early history of the town of Birmingham, 1166–1600. Dugdale Society Occasional Papers. Oxford: Printed for the Dugdale Society by D. Stanford, Printer to the University. ISBN0-85220-062-5.